Giving up waiting at home for Ian to get back from his latest trip, I decided to meet up with him in Brussels for the weekend before he headed off for his next Oslo meeting and I headed back for sunny Spain. We had spent a couple of days in Brussels a few years ago....but that was part of an organized tour...and as much as you travel through a heap of countries, you don't necessarily see everything you might like to. So...this time we were "doing our own thing". And of course, THERE WAS THE CHOCOLATES.
Our hotel was centrally located and we were able to walk to all the main tourist features. The first being the beautiful La Bourse (the stock exchange) which was just around the corner. Almost directly behind was the Grand Place square. This was the old heart of Brussels and is filled with the most stunning architecture from Maison Du Roi to La Maison Des Ducs de Brarant and the Hotel de Ville (the building was started in 1401 and was used as the town hall - fantastic). Furthermore the path between the stock exchange and the square is filled with chocolate shops....Ummmm Chocolate.......The square is still used for a flower market on Sunday mornings.
From here we followed the tourist crowd down to the statue of the "piddling boy". This famous little 18" or so statue has been presented with costumes from heads of state.......go figure.......Along with other famous small tourist features, it was almost impossible to get a photo without having "tom, jane and bill" also in the photo.
So we took a couple of quick snaps and headed along to the doomed glass roof of Galaries St Hubert where a great cup of coffee was available - right next to the ....you guessed it - the chocolate shop
We spent the rest of day looking around the lower town area; walking the Rue Neuve shopping street and along the Rue des Bouchers with its colourful stalls. The following day was spent in the Upper Town where the Palais Royal and the wonderful Royal gardens are situated. We headed towards the 12th century tower and the remains of the wall that had protected the old city and then along Rue de Rollerbeek towards the famous Wittamer cafe (which Ian conveniently walked straight past and we totally missed.....maybe next time.
Eventually reaching the place du Petit Sablon where lovely formal gardens include a series of bronze statues and looks back towards the Notre-Dame du Sablon. We had to go and find the statue of Gerhard Mercator as his 16th century map work became the basis of most modern maps of today (and Ian is an engineer - which I think explains all)
This beautiful Gothic church is famous for its stained glass windows which are lit from the inside at night and are part of the Brussels illumination tour.
The story goes that a young girl had a vision of the Virgin Mary which instructed her to take the Virgin's statue to the chapel which stood on the spot. The chapel became a place of pilgrimage and was enlarged between 1400 and 1550 - however the statue is question was lost in 1556.
From there we walked around the palace towards the building where Anne of Cleves was born and then along towards the Cathedral St Michel et Gudule which is Belgium's national church. There has been a church on this site since the 11th century and this particular cathedral is considered to be the finest surviving example of Brabant Gothic architecture.
At the time of year we visited Brussels the daffodils were out and the little part in front of the cathedral was filled with yellow flowers - really adding to the overall visit.
Brussels is a wonderful city with great sights, lovely gardens and fabulous chocolates. At some stage in the future I will investigate the history of Belgium and find out a little more about the catholic/protestant regional divisions and the development of the language focus of the various regions.
